WASHINGTON — The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told Congress Wednesday that her agency is not helping to implement Alabama’s immigration law.

In response to a question from U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., Secretary Janet Napolitano said the agency is instead working with the Justice Department in its legal challenge to the law.

Some members of Congress and civil rights advocates have asked DHS officials not to deport people who are detained under Alabama’s immigration law if their only violation is an inability to prove they are in the country legally. Part of their argument is that if one federal agency, the Justice Department, is arguing in court that the law is unconstitutional, then other federal agencies should not help with its implementation.

“We have been working with the Department of Justice on its challenge to the law,” Napolitano told the House Judiciary Committee this morning.